It seemed no one had noticed Akane's clumsiness. That was a first! She decided it was definitely best to keep her mouth shut for now, as the others seemed to know Ales much better than she did. Besides, whatever she had to say wasn't going to help him excuse what he did; what mattered was that he accepted it for what it was.

But how strange... He always looked so cute and harmless. She never would have guessed that he was capable of that kind of machinations. Kidnapping? Grabs for power?

Akane glanced at the door and bit her lip. She could probably slip out easily and go back to hiding. But that wouldn't help anything. If it were her being confronted with this, what would she want someone else to say? Would she want forgiveness? A lecture? Faith? She thought about it long and hard. Then finally, she came to a decision.

"Ales, enough!" She leaned over the railing, gripping the metal rung tightly in both of her hands. "If you regret what you did, accept that. And do better! I've seen what you're capable of making, and how you're smart, and strong. In a fight, you're amazing! Who says you can't go back and fix things? And if you don't want to go back, stay here! Or join one of us in our world! You have a whole bunch of opportunities in front of you, you just aren't seeing them because you're too hung up on the past. It's just like any kind of engineering, isn't it?" She straightened a little. "You can't make your robot into a super battle machine if you ignore the parts that are broken. This shadow is showing you those broken parts. It's up to you to see those parts, and decide if you're going to fix them or not. But if you do fix them, you'll be stronger than ever, and ready to face what comes next!"

She took a breath, and released the rung to clasp her hands in front of her. "Our worlds are counting on us. We need you."